


One Everywhere

by SeeMaree



Series: One Everywhere [1]
Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, anime I don't remember
Genre: Cannon Divergent, F/M, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-03-02 17:36:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 10,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2820542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeeMaree/pseuds/SeeMaree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katniss is tortured by nightmares of death and violence, involving Peeta Mellark, a boy she barely knows.  She struggles to understand until she meets a mysterious woman in the woods.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 12

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone,  
> I just added a note on the final chapter of this fic explaining what is going on with this fic.   
> Check it out on chapter 10  
> Thanks!

She can't reach him in time. Just like it always happens. She's reaching for him, to grab his hand, but it's as if she's swimming against a high wind. He lifts the berries to his mouth and she can't make him stop. His skin is turning pale and his eyes roll back. And she can't save him, never can save him.

"Katniss, Katniss" a little voice whispers. "You're dreaming again." Katniss lies panting, and tries to calm her racing heart. She turns to her sister.

"Did I wake you? Sorry." 

Prim shakes her head. "It's okay. Was it the same? You were saying his name again." Katniss sighs. She hates burdening her sister like this. But it's hard to keep the topic of her nightmares secret when she wakes up screaming his name almost every night.

"It was the one where he eats nightlock."

"Oh. Well that one's not too bad is it? Not like the one where wolves tear him apart." Bad is a relative term. He still dies. 

"I just don't understand why you're having these dreams about him. You don't even know him." Prim says. Katniss thinks she knows. She never told Prim where the bread came from, the bread that saved them from starvation. These nightmares are guilt, pure and simple. Perhaps if she thanks him...

"Perhaps if you talk to him, it could help." Prim continues, unknowingly echoing Katniss thoughts.

"Yeah, maybe." Katniss finally replies. "I'll think about it tomorrow."

\---------------------

He's watching her again. Does he know? Does it show somehow, how much she worries about him lately, with their first reaping coming? Or is he thinking about the thanks that she's never given?

She's spent so many nights watching him die, it's not surprising that when he brushes past her in the hallway she can't resist reaching out and sliding her hand across the bare skin of his arm. Just to see if he's warm. To make sure he's alive. 

His head snaps toward her, his eyes wide. How is it his eyes are so beautiful? She's surrounded by blue eyed people, starting with her own mother and sister. But none of them have this effect on her. Like she can't look away.

It takes another kid jostling them to break the spell. Katniss murmurs an apology and hurries away. What's wrong with her? These nightmares are making her soft. She can't afford to care about anyone but Prim.

As soon as school is over she hurries Prim home and slips under the fence into the woods. She's still nervous out here alone, but they need the food. 

She's getting better with the bow, the small one her father made for her not long before he died. She hopes that if an animal attacks her she can shoot it first. 

When she hears something approaching she turns arrow ready, heart pounding. But what emerges from the brush isn't a wild dog, or a cougar. It's a woman. She's clearly seam, small, lean, and dark. But she's a stranger.

She also carries a bow. It looks fancy and flashy compared to the simple arch of wood that Katniss has.

The woman eyes her. "Katniss Everdeen?" How does she know that? The woman nods to herself. "You're a bit younger than I expected something must have altered the balance." She frowns down at the capitol looking device on her wrist, and starts to fiddle with it, seemingly unconcerned by the arrow that Katniss still has trained on her.

She glances up suddenly, a look of fear crossing her face. "Is Peeta still alive?" Katniss feels a stab of fear.

"Is something going to happen to him? Does it have something to do with my dreams?" She blurts. Why did she say that, to this strange stranger? But some instinct tells her this woman has answers.

"Yes and no. But I assume he's okay then?" Katniss nods.

"What's happening to me? How do I make the dreams go away?"

"You don't want them to go away. They'll help you keep him safe." The woman says. She turns and walks away. 

"Wait, who are you? Can you help me?" The woman stops, but doesn't turn. 

"Don't worry. You'll see me again. Just keep that boy safe."

And then she's gone. Like she never existed. Katniss looks for her for the next few days, but she can't find any evidence that the woman ever existed. 

It almost seems like a dream. But she can't stop thinking about what the woman told her. That the dreams will help her keep Peeta safe. And what Prim said. That perhaps they'll get better if she just talks to him. And she knows what to do.

At school she waits until Peeta is alone, and then does what she should have done months ago. She thanks him. He says she doesn't owe him anything, and his eyes are bright and he smiles at her.

"I want to pay you back anyway" she says. "Please let me do something for you. Come with me to the woods and I'll help you get berries." Of course he agrees. 

That afternoon they pick a lot of berries. And she finds a reason to show him nightlock. Teaches him to identify it, and to never ever eat it.

The dreams don't stop, but she never has the dream about him eating nightlock again.


	2. Safer Without Me

Peeta is becoming a problem for Katniss. He seems to think that because she took him out to the woods that one time that they are friends now, and she doesn't know what to do about him. 

She felt like things were finally balanced between them. He had saved her life with the bread, and she returned the favor by teaching him about nightlock. The disappearance of the dream proved that. They were even. 

But now they're not. Because he keeps bringing her little gifts. Little figures that he has clearly made from scraps of cookie dough and frosting, that somehow look like tiny works of art. Drawings of the woods on small pieces of scrap paper. A bouquet of dandelions.

She wants to reject them, reject him, because she's barely keeping them alive and he wants to play? But when she ignores him she sees the hurt in his face, and she can't stand to see him hurt. She's seen him suffer too many times in her nightmares, she can't be the cause of it. She tells herself that the little bits of food are of no value to him, but may make the difference between life and death for her sister. It feels wrong to eat his flowers and his cookie animals, but what else can they do? 

At least the drawings have no other use. She keeps them carefully hidden in her drawer. When the bad feelings begin to overwhelm her it helps to take them out and look at them.

He wants her to take him to the woods again, but that dream where wolves tear him apart make her reluctant. Where will he come across animals like that except in the woods? Plus he's thunderously loud, scaring all the game away.

When she meets a boy hunting in the woods she knows it was the right decision to leave Peeta in town. This boy knows things, hunting things that can help keep Prim alive. She needs this, and she has a feeling that if Peeta were with her he wouldn't be so willing to work with her.

With school out she is spending more time in the woods with him and at first she doesn't notice that Peeta has started draw away from her. She should be glad. She never had time for his merchant silliness anyway. She misses him.

After a few weeks of Peeta not initiating any contact she decides to seek him out. Their first reaping is in a few days, and she is sick with worry for him. Which is ridiculous. He will have one slip in. One. She should be worried for herself, or her new hunting friend who have to take out tessera. Not privileged merchant Peeta.

She finds him sitting under the apple tree behind the bakery. There's a fresh bruise along his cheek bone and he's been crying. A fierce surge of protectiveness swells in her chest.

"Who did this" she demands, running her fingers across his face. She will take down any kid that had the bad idea to put a hand on her Peeta. 

He turns his face away from her. "My mother" he whispers "she doesn't like you, she said I can't see you anymore." She can tell from the noises he makes that he's crying again. He keeps his back to her trying to hide it. 

Katniss feels helpless. A bully she can handle, but how can she protect him from his own mother? His mother who is hurting him because of Katniss. 

"Peeta" a voice says. For a frightened moment she thinks it's his mother, back to beat him some more. But it's not. It's the woman from the woods. She watches in surprise as Peeta runs and hugs her. Seeing this woman smoothing a cream over the bruise on his face gives Katniss a strange feeling in her stomach. She doesn't like it much. She scowls as the woman puts her hand on his shoulder and murmurs something too softly for Katniss to hear. 

"Katniss" she says coming over to stand beside her. Peeta has gone, walking off down the alley. "I have to ask. Have you had a dream about his mother beating him?" 

Katniss looks at her curiously. "Don't you already know? You seem to know all about everything else." The woman gives a grim smile.

"I don't know everything about this Peeta. It's a little different for each one." Each one? What does that even mean? "Please, I need to know."

So Katniss tries to remember. She's seen him die so many ways. "There is one where someone hits him in the head with something, a sort of a tube shaped club, but I can't see who does it." 

"A rolling pin" the woman mutters. She looks at Katniss sadly. "You know what you need to do. You have to stay away from him, otherwise she'll kill him. It will be an accident, but he'll be dead." So she has to give up Peeta.

"That's not fair. Why are you doing this to us?" Katniss demands. She doesn't stop to think that a few months ago she would have gladly avoided Peeta Mellark. But not now. 

The woman looks very tired. "Trust me, if I was in charge he'd never be out of your sight. Please believe all I'm trying to do is help you keep him alive." She turns away. "I sent him to wait for you behind the hob so you can say goodbye. But after that you can't have any contact with him okay?" Katniss nods and hurries away before the woman can see the tears starting to form in her eyes. She's already lost so much. Loosing Peeta too is so hard.

She finds Peeta kicking the toes of his boots in the coal black dirt. 

"We can't be friends any more." Best to get right to the point and not drag this out.

"No! I mean I know what my mother said, but we can still be friends in secret right?" The desperate look on his face almost makes her relent. But she remembers what the woman said. She might be odd and annoying, but Katniss' instincts tell her that the woman really is trying to keep this boy safe.

"Peeta, she hurt you because of me. I can't be the cause of that. Ever." She needs him to see that. To know. So he'll stop smiling at her when he passes her, stop giving her little gifts, stop everything and just be safe.

He does understand. She sees teasr well in his eyes and he brushes it away impatiently.

"Fine. Okay. Just, if I'm never going to talk to you again, can I ask one thing?" She nods, a little wary of his sudden intensity. "Can I kiss you?" She gapes at him astonished. And then it all makes sense. All the presents, the way he looks at her. Her silence must go on too long, because he starts to turn away. "Sorry, I shouldn't have said...

"Yes" she interrupts. Because she doesn't really know if she wants that, but it's Peeta and she won't be seeing him anymore, and what does it matter now? And then he's right there, his face inches from hers, his beautiful eyes staring at her in wonder. 

When his lips brush hers, she feels... disappointed? If this is kissing she's not sure what all the fuss is about. He pulls back and looks at her for a second before trying again. This time he tilts his head a little and parts his lips, moving them gently against hers, and she finds herself imitating the motion. And when it's over it's over too soon.

She hugs him tightly to her and he squeezes her back just as hard. 

"She can stop me from seeing you, but she can't control the way I feel. I'm not going to be a kid she can push around forever. Promise me Katniss, promise you won't forget about me, and when we're grown..." But Katniss shakes her head. It's too much, she can't let him say it, she can't give him what he wants. She should never have let him kiss her. 

Unable to bear seeing the pain she's causing him she turns and runs.

Katniss doesn't speak to Peeta again for four years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing Katniss with her incredible lack of introspection and her tendency to shy away from any kind of feelings, while trying to get into the mindset of a twelve year old is an interesting exercise for me.  
> And figuring out how twelve year old Peeta would court Katniss was a lot of fun.


	3. Cassie

Surprised doesn't even begin to explain how Katniss feels when she comes home and finds her mother out of bed preparing dinner.

"What are you cooking?" Katniss asks cautiously, hoping she is cooking some real food, that this isn't some episode her mother is having.

Her mother looks at her vaguely. "The rabbit you left on the table of course." Katniss didn't leave a rabbit on the table. She had been too upset about Peeta to get in a decent shot. But a look in the pot shows that her mother isn't having delusions, there really is a cut up rabbit in there.

Perhaps her new friend Gale had an extra good day? She dismisses the thought as soon as it occurs. He's not interested in helping her particularly, more what he can learn from her, which he grudgingly trades his own knowledge for. So where did the rabbit come from?

She puts the thought aside and gives her mother the small amount of food she did manage to gather, a few roots and greens, which added to the rabbit in the pot should get them through a couple of days. As much as Katniss hates charity she has to be grateful to the mystery rabbit giver. And if she never finds out who left it she doesn't really owe anyone right?

Except over the next few weeks more gifts appear always after Katniss has had a poor day hunting. Like someone is watching her. It's a variety of small animals, expertly shot through the eye, neatly skinned and gutted. The person who is killing them is a far better shot than Katniss. As good as her dad was. And then she remembers. The woman in the woods. With her fancy bow.

It takes her a while (this woman really is good) but Katniss finally manages to catch her slipping through the fence. 

"Why are you doing this? What do you want?" Katniss demands. The woman sighs. She offers the squirrel she's carrying, but Katniss refuses to take it, crossing her arms over her chest.  
"Just take it. You know you have no food in the house, and my story is going to take a while. Run it home so your sister can eat and I'll wait for you here." Katniss glares at her suspiciously. The woman simply stares back. Finally Katniss snatches the carcass from her and dashes home as quickly as she can. 

True to her word the woman is waiting when she returns. Silently she turns and walks into the trees. Katniss can do nothing but follow. 

They walk in silence for long enough that Katniss is beginning to become annoyed. Her annoyance changes to amazement when she follows the woman through an unusually dense thicket into a clearing. Because carved into the side of a hillock is a tiny house. As she circles and stares she sees how carefully thought out the little home is. The roof is thatched over with grass, making it invisible from above, and all around is the same dense thicket, no one would bother forcing their way through that when they could circle around. And there is a spring trickling down the rocks, supplying fresh water right outside the door.

The woman smirks at her and gestures for her to enter. Inside is just one small room, with a bed against the wall and heavy stone fireplace. She offers Katniss the single chair and seats herself on the bed. 

After a moments silence she nods to Katniss. "So what is it you want to know? I may not answer every question but I promise I won't lie to you."

Katniss tries to shake off her awe, and find her former indignation. 

"Why are you leaving us food?"

"Because you're hungry." The woman smiles serenely. Katniss snorts.

"So is everyone else. Why do you care about us?"

"I'm a relative of your father's. I'm Cassia Everdeen. You can call me Cassie. I used to hunt with him when I was a little girl, he taught me how to handle a bow. Before I came to live out here. He wouldn't want to see you and your family starving, I honor his memory by using what he taught me to help feed you." It's a good answer, but Katniss is sure it's not the full answer. 

"If you care so much where were you when he died and mom wouldn't get out of bed? Where were you in April when Prim was going to starve to death?" Katniss can hear her voice getting louder and she should be more controlled, but it's been so hard, so frightening, she's twelve years old and for the last few months she is all that has been standing between her sister and starvation. She feels the tears begin to roll down her cheeks and she hates it. Because she has to be strong, if she's weak they're dead.

She feels arms come around her and she tries to push them away at first, but finally she gives in. Allows herself to be comforted for once. 

"I'm sorry, I wasn't here. I wish I had been." The woman, Cassie, leans Katniss against her chest and lets her cry. 

After a while she begins to speak again.

"When I was a young woman someone I loved very much died. And I couldn't take it. I couldn't stand to stay and see the people and places he knew. So I left. Ran away really. I've just been wandering for years, alone. But finally I came back to here, back to the start. And I saw you in the woods, so young. And I thought that if I help you, if I can help you have a better life then maybe mine won't have been so pointless. Do you understand?"

Katniss doesn't really, but she nods anyway. Cassie gets up and brings her a cup of cool water.

"Are you ready to head back?" She asks finally. Katniss' mind is swarming with so many more questions, but there's really only one that needs to be answered now.

"Are you staying then? For good?" Is the burden of keeping her family alive really going to be shared now?

"I'm going to be here as long as you need me." Cassie affirms. The idea almost makes Katniss start crying again. But she sucks it back. 

When they make it back to the fence Katniss is surprised to see that the day is almost over, the sun sinking lower in the sky. How long did she cry for anyway?

Before they part there one last thing that she needs to ask. "How did you know about my nightmares?" Cassie grimaces.

"It's a genetic thing." At Katniss' blank looks she adds "something that is passed on through our family." Katniss supposes she can understand that. Her mother has spoken about certain families all having the same health problem. Premonitions of death seem like an odd family legacy but she's heard that Old Mister Clemmins can tell when a bad storm is coming, so it's probably something like that.

"But why do I dream about Peeta?" Cassie smiles sadly.

"Because he's very important to you. Now go home, we can talk more next time." 

 

At first Katniss never quite trusts that Cassie will be still be there, that she won't change her mind and "go wandering" again. But with time she becomes part of her life. And Katniss begins to feel safe again. Safe the way she did before her father died. Of course she will never again feel fully secure. She knows now that one death can change everything. 

Cassie helps her with her bow skills, teaches her new herbs and plants, shows her the best spots and times to gather them. It feels like all the knowledge that her father didn't get time to share is passing to her now through this cousin of his.

Although Cassie helps when things are slim she is adamant that Katniss learn to take on the hunting and gathering for her own family. She tells Katniss that it's not good to rely too heavily on anyone, even her. This makes sense. What if instead of learning as much as she can Katniss let Cassie take over feeding them and then something happened to her? They would be worse off than before.

With the pressure to keep her family alive eased somewhat Katniss finds herself missing Peeta more. She sees him around town, at school. She feels a foolish stab of jealousy when she sees him talking to the yellow haired town girls, and feels an irrational pleasure in knowing (well hoping) that she was the one he chose to give his first kiss to. That at least once she was special to him.

She knows he hasn't forgotten her entirely. She feels his eyes on her, and she still finds little drawings slipped into her textbooks and locker. She carefully puts them away with the rest. She has quite a large collection now. 

She resents that she sees Cassie talking and laughing with him while she herself is forbidden his company. Cassie tells her not to be jealous and that she shouldn't begrudge Peeta one adult in his life that cares about him.

The dreams continue. Now that she knows how to stop them she searches for ways to protect him, and to make more of them fade away, like the dreams of the nightlock and the rolling pin did. But she just can't figure out a way to save him from wolves or a gun to the head. Who even has guns except peacekeepers? And how could one small girl protect him from them?

She talks to Cassie about it, who is evasive, as she often is when the topic turns to Peeta. But she assures Katniss that she will have the opportunity to save him from everything in good time.

It should be a relief to hear that. But it feels ominous. What is going to happen that will create a situation where Peeta could die in so many horrible ways? As relatively good as things are right now Katniss can never really relax. Not with so many bad things in Peeta's future. So many things that she must save him from.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may have tried to cram to much in the end here, but I wanted to move the story along.   
> The mystery of Cassie is still not fully explained, so if this is not what you were expecting just know that she is still concealing a lot, and keep reading!  
> I am diverging significantly from the original anime I was referencing, but hey, it's my story, so I can do what I want right?


	4. 16

Katniss spends the morning of her fifth reaping in the woods with Gale. They aren't really there to hunt, although they do take down a few squirrels and rabbits. They both need the space. Today is bad. Not only is it Gale's final reaping, his biggest chance of being reaped, with the large number of slips he has in, but they now have two new people to worry about. Both Prim and Gale's little brother Rory turned twelve this last year, so they will be in the reaping for the first time.

The list of people Katniss has to worry about is getting too long. That first year she had really only been concerned for herself and Peeta. She'd known Gale, but they hadn't gotten particularly close. It would have been sad to see him reaped, but when they drew the boy's name she hadn't had room in her heart for anyone but Peeta.

As the years pass other people manage to worm their way in. Cassie pushes her to have a normal teenage life, whatever that is. For Katniss it mostly means spending an afternoon or two a week at the mayor's house with Madge. And before she even realizes it that's another person to worry about. 

Gale becomes a good friend to her too. She can't quite talk to him as freely as she does with Madge, or hunt with him in total synchronization like she does with Cassie, but he is now on her short list of most important people too.

For some reason Cassie has always disliked Gale, and it took Katniss pleading with her on behalf of his little brothers and baby sister for her to be willing to extend the wild craft lessons to him. He seems to share her distrust, although he is happy enough to make use of her wisdom. Cassie and Gale in the same space is always an uncomfortable experience.

Even now Cassie's disapproval keeps Katniss from taking him up on his occasional flirtations. Or it's part of the reason. Truthfully the idea of herself and Gale together makes her feel a bit skittish. If that is even what he actually is looking for. If he's really even is flirting with her. Katniss really doesn't know much about it. Fortunately Cassie's idea of a normal teenage life doesn't extend to pressing her to date.

Standing at the reaping Katniss feels Peeta's eyes on her. She forces herself not too look. The dreams have gotten so bad in the last few weeks, and so specific. The one with the wolves was always frequent, but it, as well as the one where he's attacked by trackerjackers, the one where he bleeds out from a sword slicing his femoral artery, and the one where he dies slowly from blood poisoning are in almost constant rotation.

Katniss is so scared about what this means. She can't think about it. She's done everything she can. Cassie has been helping her practice rapidly hitting multiple moving targets. Prim was thrilled by her sudden interest in medicinal herbs. There's not much to be done for a cut artery, but Prim did show her how to tie a tourniquet.

Katniss is so focused on Peeta that it takes a moment for her to register the girl's name. It's Prim. How? She has one slip in. One. Seeing her tiny sister taking shaking steps toward the stage snaps her out of her shock and before she can think she's standing on the stage as a volunteer.

She blocks out Effie Trinket's twittering and focuses on the crowd. She sees Madge looking horrified, Prim crying, Gale looks lost. And Peeta, he looks stunned. He's breaking out of line and coming toward the stage. No she thinks. This can't happen. But wasn't this what she was expecting? Why she had been training so hard? How can she be expected to keep this boy safe when the only way for him to live is for her to die? She looks to Cassie, hoping for some support. But instead of the varying looks of shock and horror she sees on her other friends faces she sees... resignation?

Cassie is the last of Katniss' friends and family to say goodbye. 

"You knew didn't you!" She demands, as soon as the door closes. Cassie nods. "Why didn't you warn me?"

Cassie stares her down. "And what exactly would you have done?"

"I would have taken Prim and Peeta and disappeared into the woods. You've survived out there for years. We could have kept them safe and fed."

Cassie shakes her head. "Others tried that. He would have been dead by the end of the first winter."

"What does that even mean? How do you know? These are my dreams, how do you know so much more than me? What aren't you telling me?" Cassie comes forward and takes Katniss' face in her hands. 

"Listen to me. We don't have much time. I would have spared you this if I could. But this is the only path. Trust in your premonitions. They'll help you keep him safe. I'll explain everything when you get home." Katniss shakes her head scoffing.

"When I get home. The only way I come home is if Peeta is dead." 

Cassie shakes her "NO! Trust me. Keep him safe and everything will work out." She pulls Katniss into a tight hug. "Don't doubt that I love you both, and I will see you again." And then the peacekeepers are pulling her away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well is Cassie still sufficiently mysterious? Is this story turning out as expected?  
> Let me know what you think, and any ideas about where you think this should go.


	5. Team

Katniss hides in her luxurious bedroom on the train for the next few hours. She doesn't want to see or talk to anyone. Then Peeta knocks on the door. 

"I had to talk to you. I don't know what we're going to do. I can't hurt you, or fight you, but it's the games and I just don't know what's going to happen..." he's rambling, and so Katniss just cuts him off by wrapping her arms around him. He let's out a startled sound but then he hugs her back.

They stand like that for a long time, and all Katniss can think about is her horrible dreams, and how she can never be really sure he's okay when she wakes in the night. Having him warm and strong and alive in her arms is the best feeling, but he's not safe, neither of them are, so she doesn't want to let him go. 

And then he is gently tilting her head back and murmuring her name and kissing her. It's not like when they were kids. This time he knows exactly what he wants. He skillfully slides his mouth over hers, his tongue slipping between her lips. She wrenches away from him in shock.

"You've gotten a lot better at that, you must have been practicing." It's spiteful and unfair and Katniss knows it. If she had let him say the things he wanted to say that day when they were twelve, make the promises she was so afraid to hear, she has no doubt that he would have been absolutely faithful to them. But instead she ran away. She has no right to resent that he's been kissing other girls. No right to feel hurt.

"Like you've been slipping off to the woods with Gale Hawthorne just to hunt!" he snaps back. She looks at him in surprise. He scoffs. "Don't give me that look. I remember what happened. I thought you cared about me, but the moment you met him it was like I didn't even exist.

"Finally Cassie had to make you talk to me. You let me kiss you, like it was some sort of consolation prize, and then told me to never speak to you again." His eyes are cold and angry and it stabs at her. All she's ever done is try to protect him, she had hoped he understood that, but he was thinking this about her all along. That she was cruel and thoughtless and had thrown him aside as soon as something better came along. 

"Get. Out." She hates him right now and he needs to go. He shakes his head and leaves.

How is this happening? This is Peeta. It shouldn't be like this. Peeta is hers. Katniss has spent years trying not to think about kissing him again, while he was apparently out making out with other people. Yes, she's seen him with girls, but she always determinedly believed that they were just good friends. Not girlfriends. She was a fool to believe he still thought she was special.

Dinner is a stilted affair. Katniss ignores Peeta's glares (she's had years of practice at that after all) and tunes out the prattling escort. Haymitch doesn't join them. Fortunately the food more than makes up for the company. Katniss tries to pace herself, but still ends up feeling uncomfortably stuffed.

When Haymitch shows up and vomits all over the floor Katniss is glad she didn't eat that extra serving of cake, she risks a glance at Peeta and smirks when she sees him swallowing rapidly and looking pale.

They need this pathetic drunk though. 

Between them they manage to drag him back to his room and shove him into the bath tub.

Peeta suggests that he can handle it from here, but with the current antagonism between them there is no way Katniss is letting him get the upper hand. What if Haymitch wakes up and dispenses valuable advice?

They strip him to his underwear and hose him down before they roll him into some towels and into his bed, propped on his side so he doesn't choke if he pukes again (something Katniss had randomly picked up while her mother treated patients). She doesn't know how Peeta would've managed this all himself. But it's done. 

When she wakes from a nightmare to find Peeta's wide frightened eyes inches from hers, she wants to beat something. Maybe him. Of course it had to be the one with the wolves, the one that makes her scream his name in terror. And his room had to be right next door to hers. 

"Katniss are you okay?" He whispers sounding frantic. "I thought something terrible was happening, you were screaming for me and I got here as fast as I could..."

"I'm okay." He continues to stare, clearly not satisfied. Sigh. "I just had a bad dream." He frowns and looks away.

"About me? Was I... was I hurting you?" he looks so disturbed that she has to give him more, to reassure him. She can't tell him about the dreams of course, Cassie made her promise that long ago, but she can tell him about this one.

"I think we were in the arena" she says slowly, looking down at her hands clenched in her lap. "And there were these mutts," it's all making sense now, why those wolves have always looked wrong. They're made for the games. "They had you, I shot as many as I could but I couldn't stop them." The familiar shakes are coming on, the aftereffect of the adrenalin she had in her system a few minutes ago.

Peeta climbs into her bed and wraps his arms around her, and she's weak, she lets him.

"Katniss it's okay. We both know you're the only one with a chance of coming home. You don't have to feel guilty about it. I want it to be you." Katniss twists her head up to glare at him.

"No. Here's how it's going to be. We will go into that arena as a team, and we will protect each other, and we will never ever turn on each other. Okay?" Struck mute by the power of her disapproval Peeta simply nods.

Satisfied she snuggles back down on his chest. His chest. In her bed. This shouldn't be happening. Especially not now. "And the stuff we said before, let's just forget about it okay? Put it behind us and focus on The Games alright?" No more kissing. No more talking about kissing. He doesn't reply for a moment and she feels his chest rise and fall.

"Okay Katniss, if that's what you want" he finally mutters.

He makes no move to leave. And Katniss doesn't ask him to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Katniss and Peeta are once again brought together by her dreams. I think having a reliable adult in her life for the past few years has made her a lot more open to her feelings, especially those about Peeta, but she still is Katniss, so nothing is ever truly easy.  
> What do you think? Are they behaving in a believable manner considering the slightly different circumstances?


	6. Haymitch

Haymitch wakes up with a pounding head and a taste in his mouth that can't quite be described. 

This is why he doesn't have friends. Because friends have kids. And kids get reaped.

When Cassie had first knocked on his door a few years ago he had been wary. There were always women around who only saw the money and imagined what a cushy life they could have with District Twelve's only living victor. Haymitch sent them on their way as quickly as possible. He didn't need that kind of entanglement. They can never see the black hole that is his soul. The soul of a man whose one achievement was to outlive forty seven others, and who now escorts two more to their death each year. 

But Cassie hadn't been there to sell her body. Just rabbits. Which was a nice change. And almost without knowing it he let her into his life, and into his heart. She has never shown any interest in him as a man, but he has come to love her like the sister he never had. (He chooses not to think of the brother Snow killed so long ago).

He was relived to learn she was a single woman, childless. As lonely and alone as himself. Free to spend most evenings with him. Somehow the nights don't loom so ominously when he has company and he starts drinking a bit less. She curses his housekeeping, and he finds himself picking up a bit before she comes over. Within the space of a year she had taken him from a pathetic drunk living in squalor to a man who tends to drink a bit too much and washes his dishes every other day. It was an astonishing transformation.

But then he began to notice something, that Cassie wasn't quite as unattached as she claimed. That she mentions her young cousins Katniss and Primrose far to often. And Peeta the bakers boy who she seems to also be attached too. Which is unfathomable. Haymitch goes out of his way to avoid children, and here's Cassie seeming to seek them out.

By then it's too late. Haymitch can't give up his friendship with Cassie, and she has children. Maybe not of her body, but the way she smiles when she talks about those three kids, yeah, that's a mother.

And then all three of them are reaped on the same day. At least he can only cart two at a time off to die. 

Haymitch couldn't even meet her eyes. He went straight to the train and started drinking, drinking in a way he hasn't for three years. 

He wakes in damp shorts, rolled in towels, and feels ashamed. The kids must have done this. There's no way the train attendants would have done such a haphazard job. Damn Cassie and damn her kids, who seem to be just as special as she claims. 

He wonders if this is his fault. What if Snow has noticed the change in him these last two games. How sober he is, and the way he's been trying to quietly reconnect with the underground movement to overthrow the government. It must be his fault. The odds of this happening otherwise are astronomical. 

Haymitch tries to remember exactly what happened last night. It's a blur. He is struck with the sudden irrational fear that his bender lasted the whole games and he is on his way home with the bodies of Cassie's kids in the freight car.

He throws on some clothes and ducks out to the tribute car. His panic increases when the first room is empty. When he peaks into the second room and sees them tucked up bed together he doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. Suddenly Cassie's attachment to the boy makes a lot more sense.

Haymitch knows immediately what his strategy is going to be. He has almost zero chances of pulling it off. But who knows, maybe for once the odds will actually be in his favor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went back and forth about changing to a different person's perspective, which I usually don't like. But somehow the story just needed to hear from Haymitch for a moment. I will be continuing mostly from Katniss' viewpoint, but will probably be jumping to other people occasionally.  
> The addition of Cassie is changing everyone's lives isn't it? Let me know if you think you've figured out what's going to happen next.


	7. Don't Say It

Katniss stares at Haymitch in annoyance. She doesn't understand why he suddenly decided to train them separately. 

He has been pushing them as a team the entire time they've been here. Holding hands in the opening parade, always together in training, sleeping in the same bed. Well the last one wasn't Haymitch's idea, but when Effie complained to him about how inappropriate it was he had told her to let them be. It wasn't like they were doing anything. It was just that after the first few nights when Katniss' screams brought him scrambling into her room they had given up the charade of sleeping apart.

Then today at breakfast Haymitch announced that Peeta would be spending his morning doing interview prep with himself, while Katniss would be stuck with Effie, learning to walk in high heels and other assorted tortures. Her morning had not been pleasant. And after spending almost twenty four hours a day with Peeta for the last week being separated from him was making her antsy. Like someone might try to kill him the second he's out of her sight.

Haymitch tries to get her to be charming. Or sweet, or confident, or anything. Katniss has never felt more stupid in her life.

Finally he sighs and leans back. "I give up. Just try not to bite off Caesar Flickerman's head for asking you a question and attempt to smile at the audience. I'm glad the boy is after you, perhaps he can carry you."

Katniss bristles with indignation. That's not how this works. She takes care of Peeta, not the other way round. She ignores the way that world view has been fracturing for the last few days. How Peeta hasn't been as helpless as she thought. He has a far more extensive knowledge than she does of medicinal herbs. He's shown himself to be quite handy with a knife and he is the one that's been charming extra assistance out of the instructors at training. Not to mention how much easier her nightmares have been to bare with him there when she wakes. And now he is going to carry her in the interviews? She wonders resentfully why he even needs her at all.

She says as much to him as they wait to go on stage that evening. Peeta laughs and puts his arm around her waist.

"Katniss you have no idea how much I need you. And once we get into that arena I'm pretty sure everyone else will see it too." It makes her feel a bit better. If he really was capable of saving himself her dreams would fade away, right?

Her nerves return as she watches the careers interviews. They're so strong and well fed. She can tell just by looking at them that these kids have never gone hungry a day in their lives. The middle districts are just depressing. Katniss tries not to think about how all these helpless kids will have to die for Peeta to go home safely.

Before she knows it they are calling her name and she is trying not to trip in her stupid shoes as she makes her way up for her interview. Surprisingly she does okay. Perhaps even making a small impression on the audience when she talks about her love for her baby sister. Nothing too impressive, but hey according to Haymitch that's Peeta's job. 

And impress he does. Peeta looks stunningly handsome in his custom made suit, and they've done something with is makeup that makes it impossible to look away from his too beautiful eyes. As he charms and jokes with Caesar Katniss feels her heart squeeze painfully. She cannot allow anything to harm this wonderful, special boy.

Then Caesar is asking him about girls. Oh no. He wouldn't, would he? Her eyes find Haymitch in the audience smirking at her. Hell.

Peeta blushes and denies having a girlfriend. Well thank goodness for that at least. She hadn't wanted to ask, but it's a relief to hear. But then Caesar is coaxing him to say more.

Peeta turns even redder. "Well there is this one girl. She gave me my first kiss when I was twelve." Oh no oh no oh no "but I don't think she's really spared me a thought since." Please don't say it. Please don't name her.

Caesar laughs "well, here's what you do, you go out there and win this thing and when you get home she won't be able to turn you down." The audience cheers encouragement, but Peeta shakes his head. Katniss feels his eyes on her but she can't look at him.

"That won't work for me."

"Why not?"

"Because she came here with me." and he said it. She wants to hide. How could he do this to her? Embarrass her in front of the whole audience, in front of the whole country in fact. She thinks of her family watching this at home. Of Gale Hawthorne and his flirty looks watching this at home. She wants to die of shame.

As soon as they get back to the apartment she goes for him. Shoving him back against the wall. 

"What was that? We agreed not to talk about that. What were you thinking?" Peeta looks at her wide eyed.

"I'm sorry really, but Haymitch told me... he said it was a good idea, that it would help..." She abruptly turns on Haymitch.

''So this was your big plan? To make us look pathetic? So busy mooning over each other that we don't have time to fight?" Haymitch doesn't let her push him around like Peeta did. Before she can think he has her against the wall with her hands pinned at her sides. She feels a small thrill of fear as she looks into his face. It's easy to forget that this stumbling drunk won the games once. 

"You need to calm down, and then I'll tell you exactly what my plan is." She nods once and he releases her. Haymitch looks between her and Peeta, making sure he still has both of their attention. "You need sponsors, to get sponsors those people need to love you. And sweetheart, you did far better in that interview than I thought you could, but still you were forgettable. I needed to make you unforgettable. Both of you. I know you plan on fighting together in the arena, so I wanted them to see you as more than a good team. I want them to not be able to look at one of you without thinking of the other. To be unable to imagine one of you surviving without the other." This seems like a good plan to get them both dead, since the audience will be too heartbroken to see Peeta all alone. But everyone else seems to like it. They are all nodding approvingly. 

"That still doesn't explain why you kept this secret from me." She glares at Peeta. 

Peeta smiles at her crookedly. "You're a terrible actress Katniss. You know it. We needed an authentic reaction." That is reasonable. But it hurts. He and Haymitch basically conspired against her.

"Don't ever lie to me again" she snaps. She looks around at everyone else. "Well, was my reaction authentic enough?" It's Cinna who answers.

"I was watching you the whole time. As soon as he mentioned that first kiss I could see it in your face. You knew he was talking about you, and the look on your face was incredibly sweet. That's the moment they're going to play on a loop." Katniss doesn't know is she likes the idea of her emotions being so clearly read. Particularly when she's not even sure what they are. She looks at their expectant faces. At Peeta's. 

"Fine, whatever. I'm going to bed."

She knows it isn't what he wanted. 

Peeta doesn't come to her room that night. She can't sleep without him. She finally gives up and goes up to the roof. He is there. Of course he's there.

He looks at her with concern. "Did you have a nightmare?" She shakes her head. Stares at her feet.

"No, I just missed you." He's beside her in an instant, wrapping his arm around her and tugging her close to him. She sighs and leans in to him. She hates needing him this much.

They stare out at the city in silence. It's strange thinking that out there are so many people waiting to be entertained by her death.

"Three" Peeta says suddenly. She looks at him in confusion. "That's how many girls I've kissed." She starts to shake her head, to stop him. "No. Let me say this. It upset you and you need to know." Fine. She doesn't know why he thinks telling her about his other girls will make it better but whatever.

"When I was thirteen I was at this party. I didn't tell anyone about what happened with you and me," he's blushing a bit "so everyone thought I had never been kissed, and they decided to fix that by shoving me in a closet with an older girl. She just kind of attacked me. It was all slobbery and gross. If that really had been my first kiss I think it would have turned me off kissing for life." Katniss giggles. That wasn't so bad. 

"And then last year. I dated someone for a while. I was so jealous, seeing you go off with Gale Hawthorne all the time. Then one day he was walking past this group of girls and they were all giggling and staring at him," girls really do that with Gale. Katniss has never truly gotten why. It just makes them look pathetic as far as she's concerned. "But this one girl, she wasn't looking at him. She was looking at me. And I thought, well at least someone likes me more than him. So I asked her out. She dumped me three weeks later when I called her Katniss when we were kissing." He shrugs. 

"After that I gave up. Decided to wait until after our last reaping and just beg you for another chance." He looks at her, his cheeks pink and his beautiful eyes pleading. "I swear that's it. I haven't been out dating around, or taking girls to the slag heap." She can't resist him, not when he looks at her like that. She throws her arms around him and hugs him close.

"I shouldn't have said that stuff to you," she mumbles into his shirt. "It wasn't fair. I know. It was just, I know we didn't talk or anything, but I always felt like, I don't know, you were mine. And then I realized you weren't." He squeezes her tighter.

"Oh Katniss. I am yours, in every way." He tilts her head up. "Would it be okay if I kiss you now?" She barely has a chance to nod when he's on her. It's a kiss full of pent up emotion and longing, and all she can think is, this. This is what she's been waiting for. This is why she's never felt comfortable when Gale or Darius or anyone else flirted with her. Because if Peeta belongs to her, then doesn't she belong to him too? 

She pushes him away gasping for air. "Peeta no, we can't do this right now, we go into the arena in six hours. This isn't the right time." His mouth twists, but he doesn't argue. Doesn't say what they're both thinking. That they could be dead in six hours. So if not now, when?

They go downstairs to bed. With Peeta safely wrapped in her arms Katniss is finally able to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't seem to stop writing on this! I hope you all don't mind the frequent updates.  
> Please please let me know what you think, like or hate. Was it too soon for Katniss and Peeta to resolve their feelings? Should I have saved that conversation for the games?


	8. Is This a Game?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another very short chapter, Haymitch POV just seems to come out that way. 
> 
> It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to write this, how much of the games I wanted to cover. In the end I decided to basically skip it, because every time I tried to write out all the events I was bored with what I wrote, so I assume you guys would've been too. 
> 
> I hope to have another (longer) chapter up soon, but enjoy this for now.

Something hinky is going on, and Haymitch is sure Cassie has something to do with it.

After watching tribute after tribute die, for twenty three long years, it's ridiculous how easy it's been to keep these two alive.

He can explain the way the girl seems to have a preternatural ability to protect the boy. How she always seems to be five steps ahead of any attack. He's seen couples that always know where the other one is, and can finish each others sentences, sure they're a little young for that, but okay.

He can understand why they both have career level combat skills, she with a bow, he with a knife. They are Cassie's kids after all. It only makes sense that she would train her kids, after what had happened to her as a girl. She has made some oblique references to a boy she loved being reaped. Haymitch hadn't inquired further. He didn't need to know exactly which one of the bodies he'd carried home had been special to her. 

So he can overlook all of that. What he can't dismiss is the way Cassie prepped him for this. And that it's working.

It was a few months ago, Haymitch had been dreading the upcoming reaping, teetering on the brink of a bender. So Cassie had started giving him potential scenarios. Ways he could bring home a tribute. It had seemed random when she had said "bring home both kids." It was a crazy concept, just out there. So he'd said some stuff. Maybe they could be in love. Maybe they would rather die than be separated. Maybe he could present them as team, and convince the audience that they couldn't have one without the other. They were just throwing around ideas, and it was what he needed to keep his head together. It was the plan he had immediately put into action, the moment he saw them cuddled together that first night.

Cassie had set it all up like she knew what was going to happen. Like she knew her kids were going to the games this year.

He can already sense what this will mean if he pulls it off. His own win was ridiculously offensive to the government. This? It will be deal breaking. Very bad things will follow.

But it's Cassie's kids. The ones who are so kind that they're willing to wash vomit off an old drunk, who are so sweet they argue over who gets to die for the other, so innocent they sleep together without having sex. How can he let one die if he could save them both? How could he face his best friend if he let that happen?

So he rallies the Capitol crowds. He wrangles the strange deal from the gamemakers. And he saves those kids. His first win in all this time and he doesn't have to face bringing home a winner and a coffin. Because Haymitch is bringing them both home alive.

He just hopes Cassie has a plan for what happens next.


	9. Too Fast

Every thump and rattle of the train passing over the tracks brings them closer to District Twelve. Closer to home. It should make Katniss happy.

But all she can do is worry. Her whole world is changing. Peeta comes and sits beside her on the couch and slides his arm across her shoulders. She relaxes into him without thinking. He feels so safe and comforting that it's easy to forget that she is the one that protects him, not the other way around. In the whirlwind of interviews and appearances, following their unprecedented double win, she had found herself leaning on him far too much. The Capitol was as dangerous as the arena, and a place that Katniss was far less equipped to deal with. 

Peeta with his easy charm smoothed the way for her, covered over her miscues, and kept her anger at bay. He had kept them both safe. But now it's over, they are going back to Twelve, and it's time to stop relying on him so much. It's not needed now, for them to be so close. It's a distraction. She can't even imagine what everyone is thinking about them at home. No matter what he said in the arena about them no longer being seam and town, just victors, she knows that a significant portion of the district will disagree. His mother must be furious. The image of her swinging a rolling pin at the back of Peeta's head flashes through Katniss' mind. She knows that she banished that possibility long ago. But still...

Katniss forces herself to straighten away from his body, and sit stiffly upright. She can feel his eyes on her, but she stares straight ahead, refusing to look at him. The moment becomes uncomfortable, and he slowly withdraws his arm from her shoulders. 

"Katniss," he begins, but at that moment she feels the train slowing. She leaps to her feet, and by the time it's come to a stop she's at the back of the train stepping down to the ground. An attendant hovers, but Katniss waves him off. It's not as if she has a reason to run away on the way back from the games.

Once she gets away from the train a peaceful feeling comes over her. This isn't her woods either side of the tracks, but it's close enough. The rustles in the bushes, the calls of birds, the sound of the wind, it's calming. Katniss needs this, space around her, lack of people, to be able to think. She's sitting on the rail, gazing at the clouds, when she hears the rattle of his footsteps on the blue stone of the rail bed. Peeta settles himself beside her and looks out at the horizon too.

"What's wrong?" he asks, no preamble required apparently.

"Nothing." He sighs and rests his chin on his hand.

"Are you mad at me?"

"No."

"Katniss. Tell me." He's watching her reactions, and she's starting to feel trapped. 

"What do you want from me? Are you expecting some sort of happily ever after? Because it's not going to happen. Not now, not ever." He jolts to his feet and stalks back and forth in front of her. She doesn't let herself watch him, forcing her eyes down to minutely examine the iron sleeper beneath her feet.

"What? Are you saying you don't want to be with me? Where did this even come from? You seemed happy enough to cuddle with me last night." he says. She continues to focus on the interesting pattern of rust. "Katniss. Please. Look at me at least." She can't deny him that. His eyes are wide and confused. She focuses on his mouth instead. It's flattened into a line. "Katniss. Are you saying you don't want to be with me," he asks again. She doesn't know what to say. The idea of being separated from him feels like losing a limb, but perhaps that's what she needs. She can't let herself get so wrapped up emotionally. 

"Fine. Let me know when you figure it out." he says finally. He starts walking away from her, and it feels like her heart is going with him. She kicks the stones at her feet, trying not to feel abandoned. 

And then Peeta's in her face. "No. I'm not letting this happen. I'm not letting you do this again. For all I know it could be another four years until we talk next." Katniss flinches away in shock. The noise she was making must have masked the sound of his return. How could she drop her guard, let him sneak up on her like that?

"You know I didn't want to do that!" she yells, startling them both. "I had to keep you safe." He rolls his eyes in disgust.

"Please. You got tired of me or something. Gave me a kiss to let me down easy." Are they seriously back to this?

"Shut up. She would have killed you. I saw it." Too late she realises what she said. "I mean she could have killed you." Peeta's eyes narrow and his head tilts slightly.

"What do mean you saw it? Did you see her hitting me that time?" 

Katniss grasps on to it like a lifeline "Yes, yes, I saw that. I couldn't let that happen because of me." Peeta smirks.

"You're such a bad liar. There's no way you could've seen. It happened in the storage room. It has no windows. Now tell me the truth. I think I deserve to know." He does deserve it. But Cassie had made her promise, so long ago, to never tell him. "Why were you so sure she'd kill me? What did you see?" he coaxes.

"I saw it happen in my dreams," the words rush out without permission. But it's such a relief to say them. She can't stop. "I see you die every night in my dreams." He's shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head and she knows he's dismissing her, she should let him, but some perverse part of her needs to convince him. "No, listen to me. That first night on the train. Remember I had a dream? You were torn apart by wolf mutts, don't you think that it's odd we came up against that exact thing in the arena? I've been having that dream for years. Another one was you getting cut with a sword, and bleeding to death. You know that dream too, I wake up crying instead of screaming. And wow, what does Cato come after you with, would have cut you with if I didn't pull you back fast enough? I dreamed it all Peeta. It's how I knew how to keep you safe in the arena. Hell, it's why I showed you nightlock when we were twelve."

He's still shaking his head, but his cheeks are flushed and his eyes have gone hard. "So you think your dreams, what, show you how I'm going to die so you can prevent it? How does that make any sense?" She does know what to say. She never claimed it was logical. "So when we were kids, that first time you talked to me, took me to the woods, it wasn't because you liked me. It was because of these dreams?" He looks hurt, betrayed. "It was never about loving me was it? All that stuff you said, about how I'm your's, and how you miss me, and can't sleep without me, it was all so you could make some crazy nightmares go away." 

He's twisting it all around, he's not being fair, and it's not even true. "Cassie said I dream about you because you're special to me. I wouldn't dream about you if you weren't important." He looks even more angry.

"You told Cassie about this but not me?" 

"She already knew. She gets them too, or at least she used to, I think, until her boyfriend died." Katniss is desperate for him to understand. He meets her eyes for a moment, and then turns away, scooping up a handful of stones from the tracks, and pelting them violently toward the trees.

"Peeta," Katniss hates how timid her voice sounds, "please try to believe me. I do care about you, but the dreams, they link me to you as well." His shoulders slump a little. 

"I don't know what to think. This all sounds so crazy. And to know that you and Cassie have been lying to me all along... I need some time." Without even looking at her he starts walking back toward the train. This time Katniss is sure. He's taking her heart with him.

She runs a few steps to catch up to him. "I'm sorry, and we can talk about this with Cassie when we get home, but what ever you decide, can you, can we keep this quiet? I don't trust the people on the train, and it might be bugged or something."

He looks at her. "Don't worry, I know how to keep a secret too." And then he climbs the steps up to the train.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So they're at odds again. I am trying to mirror canon, so it seemed likely that they would have some problems at this point, but it changed because this Peeta is more confident and less willing to allow Katniss to call the shots. Plus the games were a bit less traumatic for them, because of Katniss' prescience, and the training Peeta got from Cassie.  
> It's been a long time between updates, I know. I did publish a prequel to this, called Where In Everywhere, so you may want to check it out, too. It gives Cassie's back story.  
> This story is almost done, so expect a few more chapters to complete things over the next few weeks. Katniss and Peeta's angst will finally have resolution! At least in this one fic.


	10. Note from the Author

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An update on what happened with this fic

Hey Everyone,  
Sorry for abandoning this fic in the middle of the story, but I wanted to post an update for anyone who is still a fan.  
Because you see, while I abandoned this fic, I didn't abandon the story.   
In 2015 I decided that I wanted to take this concept and turn it into an original novel.  
I had to sort of go dark and step away from fandom for a while to make that happen, to give my new characters a chance to grow and be themselves, instead of versions of Katniss and Peeta. (although I still love them!)  
But late last year I self published my very first novel Echoes of Azure, which is book one of The Guardian trilogy (yes trilogy!) which this concept turned into. Book 2 is written and being edited (publication planned for Spring 2017) and book 3 is half done, hopefully published by this summer. If you liked this fic hopefully you'll love reading the story in it's new form. I had a great time writing it.

And you can still find me on tumblr, but under a new user name, mareebrittenford.tumblr.com  
I still love writing, and talking about writing, so come and say hi and complain to me about my abandoned fic. I'll write you something.  
Thanks for being the awesome readers that gave me the courage to write an original novel. I never would've done it without you and this fandom.   
Hugs.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is loosely based on an anime I saw a few years back, whose name I have now forgotten. If anyone recognizes the story please let me know, I'd like to watch it again, and credit it.


End file.
